


The Cave

by silkmoth



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Action/Adventure, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-10
Updated: 2011-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-14 15:34:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkmoth/pseuds/silkmoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The prince looked at Merlin, who was all of sudden clinging to Arthur’s tunic. He should have known it by now… Merlin was a girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cave

**The Cave**

  
“Merlin, stop it. There are no bears here.”

“And how would you know that?”

“I just do.”

And that was just about everything Arthur knew right now. He hadn’t known there were caves here… and most of all he hadn’t known that there were _holes_ in the ground where someone could fall into said caves. But he knew that they had been lucky, very lucky. None of them had any broken bones, let alone a broken neck. How Merlin and he had managed that, Arthur had no idea. He had had the feeling something had been slowing their fall seconds before they had landed –still quite hard- at the bottom of the cave, but this was nonsense, of course. They had just been lucky, that’s all.

“What about wolves?”

Arthur sighed; as always, his manservant worried and worried and drove Arthur up the walls… well, not up the walls. That would have been handy right now.

“No wolves either. There may be some spiders here but…”

“ _Spiders?_ I _hate_ spiders!”

The prince looked at Merlin, who was all of sudden clinging to Arthur’s tunic. He should have known it by now… Merlin was a girl.

“I will kill all those bad, bad spiders for you, my lady.”

As he had expected, Merlin shoved him back immediately.

“You are such an ass! Would you please remember the spiders you had seen in that cave where you had got the flower for me? I don’t want to get eaten by monster sized spiders!”

Arthur frowned; something wasn’t right with… but before he could end his thought, Merlin started screeching and jumped right back into the prince’s arms.

“There, there!” Merlin pointed wildly into some corner. “I saw something!”

Arthur drew his sword immediately and went in the direction Merlin was pointing, only to be constrained by his manservant, who was still clinging to one of his arms.

“No, no, who knows what it is? It could be dangerous!”

The prince just dragged Merlin with him, took a look and then groaned.

“It’s only a bat, Merlin. Bats aren’t dangerous and we will probably see quite a lot of them.”

“ _Normal_ bats aren’t dangerous. What if there are giant bats down here?”

“Merlin, what is it with you? Why should there be giant bats? It’s just a normal cave…”

“Hah! He is asking why! I tell you why. Because whenever you’re involved, there is no such thing as a normal cave. Mark my words, there will be monsters any minute now.”

“No, there won’t be. Unless you think the guards are monsters. They will soon enough discover that we’re missing and will start to search for us. So calm down, alright? You will burst a vessel or something otherwise.”

Merlin clutched –again- Arthur’s arm and said, “the guards! I forgot about the guards! Hey! HEY!”

Arthur watched while Merlin started yelling; this was just as well. His manservant could scream louder than any woman Arthur had ever known. The guards had to be deaf to not hear him.

***

A long time later, both men were hoarse and Arthur had to admit to himself that either the guards looked for them in the wrong place (and this was very possible because the prince could remember very well that Merlin and he had gone off their usual path; Arthur just had to catch that stag, not that he would mention any of this to Merlin) or the guards were indeed deaf.

Arthur squinted at the exhausted looking Merlin; he could barely see him anymore. The little light that had shone through the hole in the ground far above them started to vanish with each passing moment. They needed some kind of torch; good thing that Merlin still had his beater stick.

“Merlin, do you have any flintstones on you? We need to light a fire; I would really prefer not to become blind in the next minutes.”

“Yes, I guess.” Merlin started to search through his leather bag, coming up with the stone and with lots of bandages. Bandages, of course. Arthur shook his head; he was sure that his manservant had half of the contents of Gaius’ medicines in that bag, too. After he watched the dark haired man beating the flintstone against a rock without success for a few minutes, the prince went over to him and took the stone from him.

“Let me, alright? We’re running out of time here.”

“Well, if you think you’re better than me at starting a fire, be my guest,” Merlin bitched and stood up, standing behind the prince.

“Hah! Did you see that?”

Arthur turned around, proud at starting the fire at the first try and saw some of the small flames reflecting in Merlin’s eyes.

“You’re quite the hero, Arthur.”

“I have to be, I’m down here with a girl, after all.”

Arthur saw Merlin opening his mouth, closing it again and then swallowing whatever he had wanted to say. Then his manservant crossed his arms and said, “what now, Shining White Knight?”

“I think we can forget about the guards. Maybe we should try some of the tunnels; there may be another exit to these caves.”

“Oh, that is the greatest idea you ever had. Let’s go into the tunnels and get lost. What a great plan. Thank you very much, but I will stay exactly where I am now.”

“You can do whatever you want, Merlin,” Arthur said while wrapping the burning bandages carefully around the stick. “I will go into the tunnels.”

As he did exactly that, he heard some vicious cursing behind him and then the fast steps of his manservant following him.

“Don’t worry so much, Merlin. We won’t get lost.”

***

They were lost.

Arthur had to give it to Merlin; his manservant didn’t say, “I told you so.” But maybe he was just too scared to say anything. The prince wasn’t feeling too brave himself right now. They had tried again and again to go back to where they had started, but by now, Arthur had lost every sense of direction. They had stumbled from one cave into another, large caves, small ones, caves with bats and without bats; Arthur had even seen some spiders. They had been normal sized, though.

But by seeing those spiders, Arthur had been reminded of something odd Merlin had said. _Would you please remember the spiders you had seen in that cave where you had got the flower for me?_ Now that would be a perfect normal concern, if not for the fact that Arthur had told no one about the spiders. Not a soul; not even his father. The only ones who had known about them had been that sorceress and himself, and maybe the person who had sent that shining ball of blue light. A blue light… the same shade of blue as Merlin’s eyes.

Now it would have been easy to just ask Merlin about it, but Arthur really didn’t want to see his servant running away with the torch in his hand. The prince also wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to know. Although… if Merlin had sent that light… if Merlin could do magic… it would explain many things, for example the fact that none of them had broken anything before; there had been that weird feeling of floating for a few seconds. And that Arthur had been able to light a fire on the first try, something that had never happened before; he sucked at lighting a fire.

Right now it would have been a blessing if Merlin was a warlock, who knows what he could do? He probably could get them out of here very quickly. But the prince still shied away from questioning Merlin. It would be a good thing down here, yes, but what would happen when they got back to Camelot? Arthur would _never_ rat out Merlin to his father, but he wasn’t sure if he could stand the thought of knowing about something like this and not… worrying himself to death. He would never be able to let Merlin out of his sight again; on the other hand, that wasn’t a terrible thought at all. Arthur’s heart started to beat a little faster while he watched his servant running around in the very large cave they were in right now, trying to determine which tunnel would be the best to try out next.

 _Here we go_ , the prince thought, disgusted by himself. He had had for a long time now very inappropriate thoughts about Merlin; and now one part of his mind jumped on the fact that if Merlin indeed was a sorcerer, it would change their master-servant relationship forever. It would make Merlin almost equal, well, maybe even _more_ than equal and Arthur could… try something. Merlin could say no then.

Arthur bit his lower lip. If Merlin wouldn’t think he had lost it completely, he would have slapped himself over the head. All this reasoning… it was such rubbish. Even if Merlin was just a simple servant, he would have said no to Arthur anyway, if he wasn’t willing. And _this_ was the problem, not the fact if Merlin was a sorcerer or a mere servant; Arthur had no idea _if_ Merlin was willing to get involved with the prince. It would be beyond embarrassing to be turned down by Merlin because it wasn’t just a matter of attraction; Arthur was sure somehow his heart was on the line here, too. How that had happened, Arthur couldn’t venture a guess. It just did. Well, it was probably for the best if he didn’t say anything at all. Yes, that…

“Arthur? _Arthur?_ ”

“Yes? What?”

“Is everything alright with you? The way you keep staring at this wall… it’s a little creepy.”

Arthur looked at his manservant, his heart thundering in his ears. _Don’t do this_ , he thought. _Don’t you dare do this!_

“How did you know about the spiders?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The spiders in the cave with the flower. How did you know about them?”

Merlin stared at him out of huge eyes; he looked like a rabbit in front of a snake.

“Er… someone told me?”

“No, this can’t be. I never told anyone.”

“You… er… you talk in your sleep?”

“Merlin. Tell me.”

Silence.

“Was that you? The light? Have you been saving me?”

For a moment, Arthur thought Merlin would indeed flee; he was obviously scared to death. He actually looked over his shoulder at one of the tunnels for a minute. Then Merlin’s shoulders dropped.

“Yes,” Merlin answered hoarsely.

“You’re a warlock?”

“Yes.”

 _And now what_ , Arthur thought. _Maybe I should_ … there was a sudden noise behind him and before the prince could even turn around he felt a blow to his head and everything went dark at once.

***

Arthur woke up with the mother of all headaches and to cursing; lots of cursing. Moaning, he opened his eyes just to stare unbelievingly at his manservant who did some kind of demented sword dance around some… _thing_ … lying on the ground. Whatever that thing was, it was very large, stank and was obviously dead. But that didn’t seem to stop Merlin hacking and stabbing at it with Arthur’s sword, swearing loudly. After a moment, the prince started to make out some words.

“… knew it… normal cave… as if… damn you to hell… after I kill… will kill him next…”

“Merlin?”

“Shut up!”

“Merlin? I think it is dead.”

His manservant suddenly turned around and stared at him. He threw the sword at the ground _clank!_ and made a beeline for Arthur.

“Arthur! Gods, you’re awake! How do you feel?”

Merlin took Arthur’s head in his hands and carefully turned it a bit; then he felt around for something and Arthur hissed in pain.

“Ow, stop that!”

Merlin’s hands slowly released him; they came away bloody.

“You’re bleeding,” his manservant said shakily.

“Don’t fret, I’m fine; head wounds bleed a lot, that’s normal. Just give me one of the bandages to hold them against the wound.”

“I’m out of bandages! Remember the torch? That’s it; the next time we leave the castle I will bring dozens of bandages!”

With that, Merlin drew his tunic above his head and before Arthur could mention a thing Merlin ripped it apart and tried to wrap it around the prince’s head. Arthur just stared at his half naked manservant who was already covered in goosebumps and who still had his scarf around the neck. Why Merlin hadn’t used the scarf, Arthur couldn’t even guess.

“You are such an ass! You should have watched out instead of…” Merlin broke off and glanced at Arthur. “Do you remember what you… what we had done before this thing had knocked you out?”

For a second, Arthur just heard the words ‘we had done’ and thought, _we have done something? And I can’t remember it?_ Then he saw the scared look on Merlin’s face and sighed.

“You mean our conversation about you being a warlock? Yeah, I can remember that.”

While Merlin sank back onto his heels, Arthur hoisted himself up, ignoring the pounding headache. He glanced at Merlin who was by now staring at his feet and sighed again.

“Merlin, please stop looking as if I would run you through the next minute. What do you think I will do?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. I’m just glad it’s out. I had known I would give myself away some day… and now I just wish I would have told you earlier.”

One part of Arthur wished for the same; the other part wished he had never discovered that secret. He didn’t ask why Merlin hadn’t told him, he knew exactly why. Images of burning stakes and the axe of the executioner rose before his eyes. But, headache or not, there were other things as well on his mind, and as much as Arthur tried to keep his mouth shut, he wasn’t sure if he could do it.

“Arthur, why aren’t you mad at me?”

 _Gods_.

“Er… because I like you?” Somehow this came out as a question. Merlin looked at him, surprised, and for a moment there was a certain glint in his eyes. Then the warlock sighed and sat down next to the prince.

“Yes, I know. I guess I should be… I mean I am grateful that you still think I’m your friend.”

 _Now what did that mean?_ Arthur thought. His head was pounding in the same rhythm his heart was beating, and it hurt like hell but _still_ …

“I wouldn’t exactly call it friendship,” Arthur said. After he saw the wounded look in Merlin’s eyes, he hurried on. “My feelings, I mean. Er…” If his head hadn’t hurt already so much, Arthur would have banged it against the stone wall. He sounded more stupid than his father had sounded with that troll woman.

“Really?”

Arthur looked up at Merlin and the other man stared right back at him, with an almost gentle expression in his eyes. Arthur swallowed.

“Yes, really.”

The next moment, their lips met and Arthur threaded his fingers through Merlin’s dark hair. He carefully coaxed the other man to open his lips and then slid his tongue between them. Both of them were breathing hard already, and Arthur’s senses begun to spin. He never had such a reaction to a simple kiss before. Slowly, he swept his tongue against the other man’s, and Merlin’s answering moan went straight to Arthur’s groin. He groaned himself and started to lean against Merlin to get him down on the ground. But suddenly the sorcerer drew back, looking a little crazed, and said, “this is not a good idea.”

“What?” Normally, Arthur would have thought that Merlin had second thoughts, but he just had to look at him to know that wasn’t true. Merlin’s naked chest was flushed all over, his pupils were dilated, he was panting and there was quite an impressive bulge in his pants.

“You… you’re not acting like yourself. You have a head wound. This can’t be really what you want. I’ll try to get us out of here and then we will go back to the castle and…”

Rambling. Merlin was rambling. Well, Arthur had already known it was something retarded. But by now Merlin tried to get on is feet and that was unacceptable. Arthur grabbed with one hand Merlin’s waistband and with the other his left arm and drew him down, right on top of the prince. This way was better anyway; Arthur still had his tunic on and the warm weight felt delightful.

“The hell! This is exactly what I want. For months now! Alright, I could have done without that saurian or whatever it is, but if you don’t mind, I don’t.”

And before Merlin could utter another stupid thing, Arthur lips closed over his mouth again, this time with urgency. Thankfully Merlin froze just for a moment and then started to kiss him back with a vengeance. Arthur didn’t even mind that his head got dumped back on the stone floor, hell, he didn’t even know he had a head anymore. It certainly had to have stopped bleeding; all the blood in his body was rushing southwards. Merlin whimpered quietly into the kiss, breaking it. Then he started to shove Arthur’s tunic upwards, glanced for a moment at the naked chest before him out of almost golden eyes, and then bent down and started to kiss a path across Arthur’s chest, stopping at his left nipple. He licked it a few times and then sucked it into his mouth. Arthur heaved beneath him; he actually saw stars. With his left hand, he got a hold of Merlin’s hair to keep him exactly in place while his other hand slid between their bodies, covering the prominent bulge in his servant’s pants and squeezing. At that, Merlin moaned loudly, still squished against the prince’s hard nipple.

Gods, Arthur wanted them to get naked, right now. So what if the cave was cold, so what if it stank to high heaven… he shoved Merlin back a bit and panted, “clothes… off… now!” Merlin stared at him for a second as if he couldn’t understand one word, then he nodded and wiggled down to take off Arthur’s boots. After he was done with that, he tried to get the prince’s pants off but was hindered by an also very eager Arthur who tried at the same time to open Merlin’s pants.

“Let me…”

“No, let me…”

“I’m the Crown Prince, dammit! Hold still!”

Merlin burst out in laughter at that, which was fine for Arthur, who made short work of getting all their clothes off. For a moment, he just looked at his still giggling servant. Gods, Merlin was beautiful. White skin all over, only interrupted by some tufts of black hair; an impressive cock rising out of sable curls. Arthur couldn’t help himself, he had to touch it right now. The second his hand closed around Merlin’s cock, the other man stopped laughing and started moaning again. His hips jerked with Arthur’s strokes; and suddenly stroking wasn’t enough, Arthur had to taste him. He closed his lips around the tip, swirling his tongue over the slit. He had no idea at all what he was doing; he would just go with Merlin’s reactions. This made him cough out the cock at once because Merlin had let out a cry and had shoved himself down Arthur’s throat. The prince ignored the moaning apologies from above, restrained Merlin’s hips with both hands and sucked him in again. It wasn’t easy to adjust to the velvet shaft; but on the other hand he seemed to do well if Merlin’s noises were anything to go by.

“Arthur! Arthur, I…”

 _Oh._ Arthur drew back a bit with the result being that he got the first spurt right onto his nose which made him descend quickly at once and swallow the rest. Merlin meanwhile jerked around underneath him and seemed to want to moan the roof of the cave down.

After awhile, Merlin calmed down a bit and Arthur released the dramatically shrunk cock from his lips. He swallowed a few times more; well, that hadn’t been delicious but definitely doable. Definitely.

Arthur’s own cock bobbed up at his stomach, begging for some attention. The prince looked at his now even more beautiful lover who seemed almost to glow. As if he noticed the glance, Merlin opened his eyes. As soon as Arthur saw Merlin’s eyes, swirling with blue and gold, it was over. He had thought he could wait until Merlin recovered a bit, but he couldn’t. Almost jumping onto his lover, he drove his cock in mindless need against Merlin’s soft one, against Merlin’s velvet skin. His lover immediately raised his legs and wrapped them around Arthur’s waist, moaning quietly again. Arthur shoved once, twice and then he groaned loudly, burying his face in Merlin’s neck. He literally saw stars while he shuddered and shuddered, clutching tightly to Merlin with his arms and legs.

Finally, it was over and Arthur deflated completely on top of Merlin. While he felt his lover’s hands stroking gently across his back, he thought, _Gods, I want to do this again. As often as possible. In every way possible. But first…_

The prince raised his head and looked at Merlin who was definitely glowing by now and smiling a real stupid smile. If Arthur hadn’t been sure the same smile was on his own face he would have made some comment. So he just rolled off his lover and sat up.

“Merlin?”

“Hngh?”

“In about two minutes, we will both freeze our asses off here. Do you think you can get us out of here?”

“You are such a sweet talker, my Lord. You really need to work on that. Some lessons in cuddling wouldn’t hurt either.” Merlin also sat up, with a groan.

“I don’t cuddle.”

Merlin just looked at him.

“Alright, maybe I do. But I want to do it in my bed, as soon as possible. Do you know how we can get out of these damn caves?”

“Yes, I think so. The tunnel to the right. Before… _this_ happened, I noticed it’s leading upwards and there is some kind of draft. So there had to be at least a small hole somewhere leading in the forest. No matter how small, I can blast it open enough for us to get out. Or float us out, whatever.”

“Great. Maybe you can clean us up a little, too?”

Merlin sighed and dropped his head into his hands.

“I just knew it,” he mumbled. “Now that you know I can do magic I will have to do every ridiculous thing that comes to your mind.”

“No, you won’t. I’m not crazy and I have no desire to fight my way out of Camelot with you and go into exile. We both have to be careful, but if by now no one thinks you’re a warlock, we should make it work. Somehow. Here, take this,” Arthur said and handed his tunic over to Merlin. He could stand the cool air probably better than Merlin, who was a little on the thin side. He definitely had to feed his lover more.

Merlin looked at the tunic for a moment, then he put it on and smiled.

“Awwww… so sweet of you.”

“Shut up.”

***

“You know, I was wrong.”

“How so?”

“You don’t need lessons in cuddling. You’re doing fine. Very fine.”

“How would you know?”

“What, you want me to go and find someone else so I can compare?”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Umpf! Breathing would be nice, Arthur.”

  
The End.


End file.
